CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey this week sent letters to state and county education officials to reaffirm that no school is legally obligated to heed President Obama’s transgender school directive.

“No school is under any legal obligation to obey this federal mandate,” Attorney General Morrisey wrote. “As your Attorney General, I am committed to fighting the President’s unlawful overreach and to defending our schools’ authority over their own policies. My Office will continue to push for a permanent victory.”

The letter, addressed Wednesday to the state’s Superintendent of Schools, Department of Education and county boards of education, updated officials on two significant victories against the federal government’s unlawful attempt to threaten funding for local schools that refuse to admit students to the bathrooms, locker rooms, dormitories and athletic teams of their choice.

Just this week, the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office and 12 other states prevailed in obtaining a nationwide injunction to halt enforcement of the sweeping directive until the court reaches a final decision.

That victory came as a result of a lawsuit brought by West Virginia, Texas and 11 other states against the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice and other defendants.

The lawsuit contends both agencies seek to single handedly change the traditionally held understanding of the word “sex” from that based on biology to include a person’s self-determined gender identity.

The Attorney General further advised school officials the Supreme Court recently blocked a lower court’s ruling that mandated restroom access for one student in a Virginia school district.

Attorney General Morrisey’s letter to state officials and county school boards in West Virginia can be read at http://bit.ly/2bwZOFU.